Every time you think you’ve been to your last mashup, along comes the next attempt to marry disparate cuisines. In many of these instances, a shotgun is required, but in the case of Pulkies (Yiddish for plump thighs, especially those belonging to a baby), the merging of Jewish deli and BBQ is more logical than it seems at first encounter. Both cuisines share as one their missions the perfecting, albeit via slightly different approaches, of beef brisket, a lowly cut largely ignored by other cultures. (As Anthony Bourdain memorably put it, “Only Texans and Jews understand brisket.”)
But Pulkies takes the hybridizing a step further, offering a kugel (a baked noodle casserole) that uses mac and cheese as its foundation and cinnamon babka bread pudding among its desserts. You won’t find pork — another staple of Texas BBQ — on the menu, but you will find dairy products (like “NYC-Style” pimento cheese served with bagel chips). As the website informs, “We are proudly Jewish but not kosher.”
Pulkies, DeKalb Market Hall, 445 Albee Square W., Brooklyn, 929-324-6001
